* POT SMOKING: Sen. Jason Rapert got only 10 ayes for his bill to prohbit smoking of marijuana, medical or not. 15 voted no. 10 more didn't vote. He swore his bill was about health, to save marijuana users from the ill effects of smoking. You don't smoke firewood, do you? Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, who campaigned against marijuana, said the Senate should heed the will of the people who passed the amendment and expected smoking would be a popular means of ingestion. He said many had told him it was a superior vehicle for certain conditions.

* WINE SALES: The Senate was scheduled today to complete action on allowing grocery stores to sell all wines, not just native and small farm wines. It had passed the bill previously, but it has a House amendment now. It would appear retail liquor store opposition is having an effect in the Senate. The bill was passed over. One previous supporter defected, which might have dropped support to 17 senators, one shy of the number needed for passage.

UPDATE: Also today, the Senate failed to muster the 27 votes necessary to amend the section of the Constitution related to voter registration to allow Voter ID requirements. The vote was expunged and can be tried again. A separate constitutional amendment on Voter ID is likely heading to voters in 2018.

More by Max Brantley

Attorney General Leslie Rutledge went to court late yesterday to get the state Supreme Court to halt mediation ordered by Circuit Judge Tim Fox in the case over issuing birth certificates to same-sex parents.

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One of the booths at this week's Ark-La-Tex Medical Cannabis Expo was hosted by the Arkansas Hemp Association, a trade group founded to promote and expand non-intoxicating industrial hemp as an agricultural crop in the state. AHA Vice President Jeremy Fisher said the first licenses to grow experimental plots of hemp in the state should be issued by the Arkansas State Plant Board next spring.